The South Dakota State women’s tennis team recently opened its fall season by traveling to the Gopher Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota. All of the action took place Friday through Sunday at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis. 

Competing in an invitational that has the Jackrabbits playing lots of tennis, two women from South Dakota State finished within the top 10 participants in their respective flights. 

Florencia Magni, a senior for SDSU, finished eighth in the flight B singles draw after losing to Kelsey Grambeau of Wisconsin 3-6, 3-6 in the fifth place semifinal. 

Morgan Brower, a South Dakota native, made her collegiate debut for the Jackrabbits in Minnesota, where she finished fourth in flight C singles. Brower will be a player to keep an eye on as the season progresses, as she has already played well right out of the gate. Brower led Sioux Falls O’Gorman to four South Dakota championships, while tallying four titles in flight 1 singles and three in flight 1 doubles.

In doubles, Magni and Brower lost to Iowa State, 6-3, but then beat North Dakota, 6-1. Their teammates, sophomore Maria Laura Velazco and senior Beatriz Souza, went 1-1 defeating Air Force 6-1, but lost 6-3 in their final match.

Michael Engdahl, head coach of the women, had all positive things to say about the performance of his team in Minnesota. 

“Overall, it was a good tournament for us. We have a few mental kinks we need to work out but we are playing the type of physical tennis we need to play to win,” Engdahl said. “Our girls have a lot to be proud of and we should be excited to hit the practice courts hard this week to get ready for the ITAs.” 

The Jackrabbit women will next travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma to compete in the ITA Central Regional on October 15 through 18.

The men’s tennis team will travel to Omaha for the Omaha College Invitationl this weekend, Oct. 2 through 4, before traveling to Oklahoma with the women. The ITA Central Regional will be the final event on the teams’ fall schedules. They will resume competition in January.